<?php
/**
 * <https://y.st./>
 * Copyright © 2019 Alex Yst <mailto:copyright@y.st>
 * 
 * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 * (at your option) any later version.
 * 
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 * 
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org./licenses/>.
**/

$xhtml = array(
	'<{title}>' => 'Compromise',
	'<{body}>' => <<<END
<img src="/img/CC_BY-SA_4.0/y.st./weblog/2019/01/21.jpg" alt="Support pillars under the overpass" class="framed-centred-image" width="649" height="480"/>
<section id="pens">
	<h2>Gel pens</h2>
	<p>
		I really hate to give up on the pen set I already have.
		It&apos;s annoying that the manufacturer planned the case so poorly, and they provided such a bad combination of pen colours, but the pens themselves are quite functional.
		And I love how they&apos;re unbranded.
		The case has a logo, but the pens themselves look so generic.
		So I did some more searching online.
		What I found is that all the small pen sets seem to have brand-specific designs.
		Small pen sets aren&apos;t generic.
		However, some of the large pen sets seem to have pens the exact shape as the ones in my case.
		The shape of the pens I&apos;ve already got is actually even more generic than I could have hoped.
		Being the same shape, I&apos;m hoping they have the same size, and can thus fill the empty slots in my case.
		The catch is that I&apos;ll need to buy more pens than I actually need.
		I&apos;ve got twelve empty pen slots, and I can make use of the three bigger slots to hold four more, for a total of sixteen more pens.
		However, no 16-or-less-pen sets seem to have a thin or generic shape to them.
		The least-expensive set I can find with the right shape has fifty pens in it.
		And that set&apos;s pens have printed logos on the caps.
		If I&apos;m already going to get too many pens, I might as well choose ones I&apos;ll like better.
		For a little extra, I can get seventy pens with no logos on the caps.
	</p>
	<p>
		I think this second attempt at completing my pen set is reasonable, but I don&apos;t think a third attempt should be made, should these new pens not be what they seem.
		There&apos;s a common psychological issue most people have, in which they&apos;ll pour far more resources into something than that thing is worth just to avoid having the already-spent resources that&apos;ve gone into it having come to nothing.
		The longer this goes on, the worse the problem gets.
		They&apos;ve already put so much into it, and with just a little more, maybe that massive amount of loss won&apos;t have been for nothing.
		I&apos;m not going to fall into that trap, because I see it coming.
		With each attempt made, I&apos;m going to learn something.
	</p>
	<p>
		With that first attempt, I learned that pens with any thickness to them won&apos;t fit in the case.
		Some of the large pen sets seem to have cheap, generic pens in them, as they can get money out of you for their quantity.
		On smaller pens sets, the pens seem to be far from generic, so the company can get your money for their branding and (sometimes) quality.
		I&apos;d pay for quality if it were presented in a generic form, but if a company has put that much effort in, they&apos;re going to want their name plastered on it because they&apos;re proud of it and because they want to advertise.
	</p>
	<p>
		With this second attempt, I&apos;ll learn whether this generic pen shape is as generic as it seems.
		To be honest, I didn&apos;t think it was quite a generic shape, when I first got my pens.
		I mean yes, the shape is very generic, but I thought the company had used a mould of their own design, just a very simplistic one.
		There&apos;s a small bulge near the tip to hold onto; it&apos;s not just a straight shaft.
		But the images I saw online seem to indicate that other gel pens use an identical shape.
		There might be some standard gel pen shape due to some company selling gel pen moulds to other companies that don&apos;t want to design their own.
		If I&apos;m right, I should be able to get replacement pens whenever I need; which will probably be never, because I&apos;ll just refill the pens I&apos;ll have unless they break.
		Even then, I&apos;m going to have 54 spare pens on hand.
		If I&apos;m wrong, the pens won&apos;t be what I need, and I&apos;ll know seeing such a familiar shape is no indication that the pens will fit in my case.
		I&apos;ll know that each purchase made will be a random shot in the dark, with an unknown probability of success.
	</p>
	<p>
		Speaking of these extra pen shafts, I think they&apos;ll actually come in handy, to an extent.
		The refill kits I saw have 100 unique ink colours, but my case&apos;ll have 76 pens.
		That means I won&apos;t always have the same colours available.
		Swapping out pens shaft colours along with the inks as I replace them could provide a better colour match between shaft and ink.
		Also, I&apos;ve been keeping one of my pens in my wallet for writing in my planner.
		With extra pen shafts, that doesn&apos;t need to be one of the 76 pens stored in my case leaving an empty slot, but instead just a separate pen I carry for practical use instead of doodling.
	</p>
	<p>
		The other thing about the practicality of this case is that it needs to hold up to travelling.
		I&apos;ve been taking only a few pens with me up to now, partly to save space in my bag and partly to keep the seemingly-fragile case safe.
		It&apos;s supposedly a travel case though.
		So I started bringing it with me today, and bringing along a bag to put the bottles I collect in, instead of my backpack.
		During my breaks, I can switch pens as needed, keeping only a few in my pocket.
		Lately, I&apos;ve only needed three at a time, so it&apos;s unlikely I&apos;ll end up dipping into the case at all, but it&apos;ll be there if I need it.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="taxes">
	<h2>Filing taxes</h2>
	<p>
		Filing taxes was a pain.
		I couldn&apos;t get my network connection to stay up for long.
		It kept cutting out, and once the connection was down, it took forever to get it back up.
		The $a[IRS] website is now blocking me.
		I know I could access it in past years, but I&apos;m pretty sure I could even access it as late as last year.
		One service demanded telephone numbers, making their service unusable.
	</p>
	<p>
		One site wouldn&apos;t let me speak with a real representative unless I agreed to pay \$40 $a[USD], and when I did and complained about the telephone number requirement, they told me to enter a bogus number.
		For \$40 $a[USD], I&apos;m going to need a better solution than just entering a bogus number.
		When I asked how to prevent the $a[IRS] from being sent this bogus number, the connection cut out.
		The chat timed out, and the next representative I spoke with just kept trying to find numbers in my life I could use.
		Work numbers, family numbers, friend numbers ...
		There&apos;s no reason any of these belong on my tax return, especially if I&apos;m paying \$40 $a[USD] for a solution, so I denied the existence of the first two and honestly said I don&apos;t know the later.
		I finally stumped that representative, and they went to go get help.
		When they returned, they said I couldn&apos;t file with them.
	</p>
	<p>
		The second website wouldn&apos;t let me move on until I answered how I feel about doing taxes.
		Like, seriously?
		What is that garbage?
		How is that relevant to anything!?
		The second service allowed me to leave the telephone number blank on the tax return, but required the number at checkout.
		I shouldn&apos;t have tolerated that, but I just wanted this to be over, so I caved and entered a bogus number there.
		If I wasn&apos;t simultaniously dealing with constant network issues, I&apos;d&apos;ve found another tax e-filing site.
		At least I wasn&apos;t lying to the $a[IRS] by sending <strong>*them*</strong> a bogus number.
		Later on, the site demanded a telephone number again, and I supplied the same fake one.
		I did make sure to check the submitted documents before authorising them to be sent to the $a[IRS] though.
		On the documents, the telephone number field is empty.
		The $a[IRS] isn&apos;t getting fake information, only the idiotic company that insisted upon my entering a telephone number is.
	</p>
	<p>
		This is the first month I owe the $a[IRS].
		I&apos;m not sure what&apos;s different this year.
		Last year, I hardly got any refund at all though, so I guess this trend started last year for me.
	</p>
</section>
END
);
